plant and grow youramateur radio family tree

Hamcestry news of the day

Hamcestry.com is up and running!

We're up! if you find a bug and we'll try to squash it!.

FROM THE EDITOR

I got involved in HAM radio via delivering newspapers in my hometown of Rushville, Indiana. On my route was the home of Mel Martin (K9PQP). Every time I tell the story, I think about all of the people that would have led up to Mel getting his license, then all of the people besides me
that he must have influenced, and then the people I have influenced. Although I'm in contact with all of those I have influenced, at some point I may not be and it would be nice to somehow see how my influence may have grown over the years.
I also hear and read the same type of stories all the time from other amateurs. It made me wish we there was some place this could be visualized, and so here we are!

If you like the website, please tell people about it. It has no value if people don't use it. Invite all of your influences and your Elmer to join as well.

73,
Bill (K9PHP)
Hamcestry.com Founder

A Better Tree Format

We how have a normal "family tree" style tree instead of the folder hierarchy we used to have. The biggest drawback is that if you have a large tree, you will need to scroll both directions to see it all but I think that's a small price to pay. It really is much nicer now.

NEW!!! Morse Code Trainer is up and running

I learned morse code using Ray Goff's (G4FON) Koch method morse code trainer. It was the best tool I had ever tried. I wanted to offer a web based version of it here. It is very closely modeled to the G4FON trainer, but not an exact replica.
You can read more about Ray's program and also download it from here: http://www.g4fon.net/

More information on the Koch method from an article by Dave Finley N1IRZ here.

Please note that there may be some bugs that crop up from time to time. This feature uses some fairly new concepts to web audio that may not work quite right in all browsers.
The latest versions of Firefox seems to work the best. Opera works pretty good too. No version of Internet Explorer supports this at the moment. Microsoft's Edge browser does pretty well though.
Apple mobile devices tend to be buggy depending on the iOS version, but Safari on the Mac desktop works pretty good. I have not tested with Linux or Android so if you have a report for one of those, please !

The lesson grading routine to grade your work has been written. Eventually, I hope to add the ability to track your progress over time if you are a registered user.

I Signed Up... Now What?

Ok so when you log in – top right – there are My Mentors and My Mentees links. Use these to add whoever got you started in HAM radio (mentor), and anyone you have got started into the hobby (mentees).
If you put their email in when you do, it will notify them you did so, briefly explain what it is, and encourage them to join too! Since you can only add 1 level above and below you, obviously it takes people to sign up and do the same thing,
but my hope is that people will get interested and at some point, you could see just how far your influence has reached. For example, amateurs that are also involved in scouting would have HUGE trees, especially if say,
only 50% of the scouts continue on with the hobby and they encourage people and those people do the same and so-on. 20 years from now, that scout-master's tree would be extensive, but they may never know how extensive otherwise.
This could be a place where that could be visualized.

Amateur Radio Practice Exams

Want to get your license or upgrade? We have a full line of practice tests, section quizes, and flash cards for you to use to study with. All for FREE!
Simply taking practice test after practice test works for some people, but a lot of people like to do flash cards, or practice a section at a time.
If you register and then log in to use these tools, you can track your progress over time, as well as compare your average scores with everyone else's average score to see how you are doing compared with everyone else.

What the heck is a Mentee?

Why use Mentor instead of Elmer? Well, mainly because we couldn't come up with a suitable word describing those that were influenced by an Elmer.
We searched and that was about the best word we could come up with for the opposite of a mentor. Protégé is close, but not really the same thing.
Seriously, we didn't make that up. Check Webster's Dictionary for Mentee - click here.
I suppose we could just start using Elmee. Maybe start a new trend? what you think!

Coming Soon (I hope)

There's a lot I'd like to do. Finding the time is the problem. Here is what I'm wanting to see here at Hamcestry.com the future: